No. 50.] 
359 
the property of attracting the needle, and have been changed to those 
of a higher degree of oxidation. 
Whilst on the subject of magnetic iron, it may here be well to men- 
tion the new locality of this ore, discovered last year, about two nxiles 
to the north and east of Salisbury-Centre, in Herkimer county, on the 
land of Congdon and Gilford. The ore appears near the surface, on a 
low hill side, composed of various kinds of gneiss with hornblende 
rock. The course of the layers of the gneiss is nearly east and west, 
highly inclined, with a south dip. The ore appears as a bed, being 
parallel with the gneiss and hornblende rock, the whole intermixing with 
each other, so as to show a contemporaneous origin. Where the bed 
has been opened, it is quite irregular as to width, varying from a few 
inches to nearly two feet in thickness. There seems to be something 
like a curving or rolling of the ore and its associates, resembling the 
contortions frequently seen in gneiss and other crystalline laminar rock. 
From this cause it was difficult, at the time of my visit, from the small- 
ness of the excavation, to form any correct opinion of the quantity of 
ore, or in other words, value of the deposit. Since being there, I have 
been informed that from one to two hundred tons of ore have been al 
ready obtained from the deposit. 
By means of the compass, the ore has been traced for a mile or more 
to the east, and in the direction of its line of bearing where opened. 
There, when about twenty feet from the excavation, and on its north 
side, at a right angle to the line of bearing, the needle begins to show 
signs of being acted upon ; and in advancing towards the opening, or 
mass of ore, the action increases and finally the position is reversed, 
the needle finding its north at the mass. 
The same action, in all respects, upon the magnetic needle, is ob- 
served from place to place, for the distance mentioned, showing that, 
as a mass, it is not continuous, though it has a given direction or place, 
analagous, in this respect, to all subordinate masses, uniform as to po- 
sition, but without continuity. That this is no generalization from one 
fact, is evident from observations on the adjoining tract, owned by Prof. 
McVickar. There, at the bottom of a brook whose waters cross the 
layers, and have uncovered the rocks, we find the same ore, with the 
same associates, and there the action of the needle was the same as in 
the first instance mentioned. 
